Aug 31, 2023Liked by Jason McBride, M. E. Rothwell
I love that book! I have a version without the dust jacket that I must have picked up at a used bookstore or library surplus sale. Not sure exactly how it made it to my shelf, but I've treasured it ever since. William Carlos Williams and Langston Hughes have always been at the top for me, but this made me fully respect and appreciate those other icons...even Wallace Stevens, who I still have trouble grasping. A side note: we read "Fire and Ice" in my high school English class on the morning of 9/11, so it's always had an eerie resonance. The anthology most dear to me is SING A SONG OF POPCORN, a book of children's poetry illustrated by a bunch of Caldecott medal-winning artists. I don't think I'd still be writing or drawing today without it.
I'm grateful that the version I first had was the plain yellow-covered paperback. That simple cover somehow made it more approachable. I love Sing a Song of Popcorn too! I lost my copy of it some time ago, but now that you mention it, I need to go and find myself another copy. Until you mentioned it, I never thought much about the influence it had on me. But obviously the fact that much of my art is making poetry comics, it clearly stuck with my subconscious.
Aug 31, 2023·edited Aug 31, 2023Liked by Jason McBride, M. E. Rothwell
Yes, it's one step away from poetry comics for sure! My favorite are the Leo and Diane Dillon illustrations. Made Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, and e.e. cummings even more magical to me.
Thank you so much Priya! I wish everyone could have a teacher like Miss Taggart. She really pushed me and encouraged me without once being condescending.
Aug 31, 2023Liked by Jason McBride, M. E. Rothwell
This is so great--reading poetry to feel instead of to understand is the key! Along with good tough teachers. Thanks for sharing, Jason! You’ve inspired me to dust off some of my American poetry anthologies and flip around in them :)
This post made me realise how much of my poetry consumption has been skewed towards England. Knew so few of the great poems on this list before reading
Thanks! I run up against this with so many people. They think they don't like poetry but it's only because nobody has ever given them permission to just feel the poem and not worry about decoding it. Demystifying has become my quixotic quest lol.
What I love when I read the books that made us is the sincerity and personal depth to which writer presents their book. This is beautiful and I was captivated from start to finish and feel inspired to find myself a poetry anthology the next time I'm at the local flea market. Not only have I been immersed in each contribution, but the delectable discovery of new Substacks like Jason's is gratifying.
Basking in the warm glow of your comment, thanks Safar. That is exactly what I hoped this project would be, and all these wonderful guest writers are delivering!
Mickey has really done an excellent job proving an intriguing place to discover new writers and books. I'm so happy you enjoyed my small contribution to this larger project.
Thanks Jason! I couldn’t stop reading. I wanted to be bathed in poetry, to discover how feeling the world through words unraveled how you live in the world. Now, I want to spend the day immersed.
Anthologies are so underrated. Such a fun thing to flip through, agree. Whilst studying for the Literature GRE (ugh) I took my Norton anthologies everywhere to the amusement and bewilderment of others. I can see the poetry has had a lasting impact on you in your newsletter, Jason.
I feel like I would get too distracted by tangents and deep reading to effectively prepare for the Literature GRE. I love the Norton Anthologies! The LSAT was easier because most of the studying was brain teasers. Thank you for reading this!
Jason, this is great, and the Hughes poem is one of my favorites by him--it's weird to think of him as underrated, but I kind of think he is in terms of some if his rhythmic inventions. If you're interested, I set the poem you reference to music (since you mention hip hop, this is a super quirky projoect of mine--setting canonical poetry to beats). https://decliningacademic.substack.com/p/langston-hughes-on-a-holiday
Thanks for sharing that link! I love your take on Dream Variations! Your quirky project hits me hard. I love how it makes the canonical poetry feel alive. These poems are so often presented so blandly. You capture the energy and emotion with this.
Loved this, Jason. Yours is the second thing I've read today that damns literature classes as the poison by which literature dies. Decades ago, I decided to get myself some classic novels and just read them as if I picked up a paperback on the rack at the drugstore. (Please stifle the urge to put a pistol in your mouth.) For a couple of books, Lady Chatterley's Lover and Wuthering Heights, I enjoyed them immensely. Then I took a lit 101 class where the prof discussed and discussed for three weeks Wuthering Heights. Complete ruin! Now I'm doing the same thing with poetry with Garrison Keillor's book, Good Poems for Hard Times. I think I heard about it on Substack. OMG! Maybe it was from you! Anyway, just opening the book at random, I read some of the funniest and most delightful poems. Today I read Keillor's Foreward and he stated the same thing: throw out everything you ever learned in college about poetry and just explore it and see how it makes you feel. (In one poetry literature class, I learned the word "enjumbment." It means the ending of a sentence in a poem on the most significant word to foster "meaning." Isn't that the biggest crock of shit ever?
Thanks Sue! I think part of the problem is the way we have set up education (both higher education and primary education). There is a strong case for academic rigor in literature and poetry. Academics who dive deep and break down these texts perform a useful service.
The problem is that the systems are set up so that only the rigorous academic approach to literature is usually taught. The idea of just appreciating literature is outside the system. Our societal worship of STEM at the exclusion of the arts and humanities tends to make these fields in academia more STEM-like in their pedagogy.
I use this analogy a lot, but I think poetry and literature are like flowers. You can love them without understanding their mechanisms. Botany is not for everyone, but flowers are for everyone. Textual analysis is not for everyone, but poetry is for everyone. Schools are just biased towards the analysis bit because we are uncomfortable with feelings.
Aug 31, 2023Liked by Jason McBride, M. E. Rothwell
Just read this out loud to my 12-yr-old son, who like you, is "a chronic underachiever, indifferent to [his] classes but deeply curious about the world," and he totally related. Last year he read The Crossover by Kwame Alexander he was so into it he forgot it was poetry.
❤️❤️❤️ Thank you for sharing that with me! The Corssover is one of those books I want to read every time I hear about it, and then life happens. But it's going up high on the list now. I love that Kwame Alexander has captured the imagination of so many adolescents and young adults. I wish more of our culture was geared towards teaching contemporary like this book.
Aug 31, 2023Liked by Jason McBride, M. E. Rothwell
Oh, what a wonderful read! Thank you for this love-letter to poetry. I was hooked from the first words and even laughed out loud a couple times. I love all the nicknames. And Em as "a goth-adjacent kid" = perfect! The Langston Hughes poem gave me chills.
One of the first poems I ever learned by heart was Frost's "Riders"
Stevens is tough to swallow at first. He is an acquired taste, for sure. But if stick with it and keep reading his work, it will pay off. I recently revisited The Palm at the End of the Mind: Selected Poems and a play—phew. So good.
I love that book! I have a version without the dust jacket that I must have picked up at a used bookstore or library surplus sale. Not sure exactly how it made it to my shelf, but I've treasured it ever since. William Carlos Williams and Langston Hughes have always been at the top for me, but this made me fully respect and appreciate those other icons...even Wallace Stevens, who I still have trouble grasping. A side note: we read "Fire and Ice" in my high school English class on the morning of 9/11, so it's always had an eerie resonance. The anthology most dear to me is SING A SONG OF POPCORN, a book of children's poetry illustrated by a bunch of Caldecott medal-winning artists. I don't think I'd still be writing or drawing today without it.
I'm grateful that the version I first had was the plain yellow-covered paperback. That simple cover somehow made it more approachable. I love Sing a Song of Popcorn too! I lost my copy of it some time ago, but now that you mention it, I need to go and find myself another copy. Until you mentioned it, I never thought much about the influence it had on me. But obviously the fact that much of my art is making poetry comics, it clearly stuck with my subconscious.
Yes, it's one step away from poetry comics for sure! My favorite are the Leo and Diane Dillon illustrations. Made Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, and e.e. cummings even more magical to me.
Applause! love this so well. Thank you
…I live
in each letter that is
where you will find me.
They have been given
to us as keys to the great
breathing hope of life.
I always wanted to live
there but couldn’t live
there until the poetry
gave me life of words.
-Hannah Emerson
The purpose of poetry is to restore to mankind, the possibility of wonder. ~Octavio Paz
Thank you! These are two tremendous quotes. That Octoavio Paz quote is my lodestar for Weirdo Poetry.
That’s a fantastic quote.
Langston Hughes is too gangster for a nickname made me smile. Excellent piece, Jason! 💜❤️
Thanks!
“Ask yourself instead what Emerson makes you feel.”
To experience poetry instead of just reading it. Loved this!
Thank you so much Priya! I wish everyone could have a teacher like Miss Taggart. She really pushed me and encouraged me without once being condescending.
This is so great--reading poetry to feel instead of to understand is the key! Along with good tough teachers. Thanks for sharing, Jason! You’ve inspired me to dust off some of my American poetry anthologies and flip around in them :)
This post made me realise how much of my poetry consumption has been skewed towards England. Knew so few of the great poems on this list before reading
Likewise, so much of my poetry reading is skewered towards American poets.
Thanks! I love anything that gets anyone to read and/or write more poetry!
Great stuff, Jason, right on, right on, right on.
Thank you!
I love the idea of feeling the poem vs. Trying to understand what it means. Makes all the difference.
Thanks! I run up against this with so many people. They think they don't like poetry but it's only because nobody has ever given them permission to just feel the poem and not worry about decoding it. Demystifying has become my quixotic quest lol.
What I love when I read the books that made us is the sincerity and personal depth to which writer presents their book. This is beautiful and I was captivated from start to finish and feel inspired to find myself a poetry anthology the next time I'm at the local flea market. Not only have I been immersed in each contribution, but the delectable discovery of new Substacks like Jason's is gratifying.
Basking in the warm glow of your comment, thanks Safar. That is exactly what I hoped this project would be, and all these wonderful guest writers are delivering!
It's a treasure trove of a compilation and has all the hallmarks of a distinctive legacy.
Mickey has really done an excellent job proving an intriguing place to discover new writers and books. I'm so happy you enjoyed my small contribution to this larger project.
Thanks Jason! I couldn’t stop reading. I wanted to be bathed in poetry, to discover how feeling the world through words unraveled how you live in the world. Now, I want to spend the day immersed.
Thank you, Zelle! There's nothing better than being immersed in poetry.
Nicknames for the poets! Love that.
Anthologies are so underrated. Such a fun thing to flip through, agree. Whilst studying for the Literature GRE (ugh) I took my Norton anthologies everywhere to the amusement and bewilderment of others. I can see the poetry has had a lasting impact on you in your newsletter, Jason.
I feel like I would get too distracted by tangents and deep reading to effectively prepare for the Literature GRE. I love the Norton Anthologies! The LSAT was easier because most of the studying was brain teasers. Thank you for reading this!
Worst test ever :)
Would have preferred the LSAT!
Jason, this is great, and the Hughes poem is one of my favorites by him--it's weird to think of him as underrated, but I kind of think he is in terms of some if his rhythmic inventions. If you're interested, I set the poem you reference to music (since you mention hip hop, this is a super quirky projoect of mine--setting canonical poetry to beats). https://decliningacademic.substack.com/p/langston-hughes-on-a-holiday
Thanks for sharing that link! I love your take on Dream Variations! Your quirky project hits me hard. I love how it makes the canonical poetry feel alive. These poems are so often presented so blandly. You capture the energy and emotion with this.
Loved this, Jason. Yours is the second thing I've read today that damns literature classes as the poison by which literature dies. Decades ago, I decided to get myself some classic novels and just read them as if I picked up a paperback on the rack at the drugstore. (Please stifle the urge to put a pistol in your mouth.) For a couple of books, Lady Chatterley's Lover and Wuthering Heights, I enjoyed them immensely. Then I took a lit 101 class where the prof discussed and discussed for three weeks Wuthering Heights. Complete ruin! Now I'm doing the same thing with poetry with Garrison Keillor's book, Good Poems for Hard Times. I think I heard about it on Substack. OMG! Maybe it was from you! Anyway, just opening the book at random, I read some of the funniest and most delightful poems. Today I read Keillor's Foreward and he stated the same thing: throw out everything you ever learned in college about poetry and just explore it and see how it makes you feel. (In one poetry literature class, I learned the word "enjumbment." It means the ending of a sentence in a poem on the most significant word to foster "meaning." Isn't that the biggest crock of shit ever?
Thanks Sue! I think part of the problem is the way we have set up education (both higher education and primary education). There is a strong case for academic rigor in literature and poetry. Academics who dive deep and break down these texts perform a useful service.
The problem is that the systems are set up so that only the rigorous academic approach to literature is usually taught. The idea of just appreciating literature is outside the system. Our societal worship of STEM at the exclusion of the arts and humanities tends to make these fields in academia more STEM-like in their pedagogy.
I use this analogy a lot, but I think poetry and literature are like flowers. You can love them without understanding their mechanisms. Botany is not for everyone, but flowers are for everyone. Textual analysis is not for everyone, but poetry is for everyone. Schools are just biased towards the analysis bit because we are uncomfortable with feelings.
Also, I love, love Wuthering Heights!
Just read this out loud to my 12-yr-old son, who like you, is "a chronic underachiever, indifferent to [his] classes but deeply curious about the world," and he totally related. Last year he read The Crossover by Kwame Alexander he was so into it he forgot it was poetry.
❤️❤️❤️ Thank you for sharing that with me! The Corssover is one of those books I want to read every time I hear about it, and then life happens. But it's going up high on the list now. I love that Kwame Alexander has captured the imagination of so many adolescents and young adults. I wish more of our culture was geared towards teaching contemporary like this book.
Yes to contemporary! Especially when there are so many great options! Thank you again for sharing your story!
Great post Jason! Got me a copy
Awesome! It's a great book to flip through.
I have that book in my library. I’m going to go look at it now. Thanks!
Thanks for reading this! With that book, you have many hours of great reading ahead of you!
Oh, what a wonderful read! Thank you for this love-letter to poetry. I was hooked from the first words and even laughed out loud a couple times. I love all the nicknames. And Em as "a goth-adjacent kid" = perfect! The Langston Hughes poem gave me chills.
One of the first poems I ever learned by heart was Frost's "Riders"
The surest thing there is we are riders,
And though none too successful at it, guiders,
Through everything presented, land and tide
And now the very air, of what we ride.
What is this talked-of mystery of birth
But being mounted bareback on the earth?
We can just see the infant up astride,
His small fist buried in the bushy hide.
There is our wildest mount--a headless horse.
But though it runs unbridled off its course,
And all our blandishments would seem defied,
We have ideas yet that we haven't tried.
And Wallce Stevens - don't get me started! "Anecdote of the Jar" is a marvel. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/14575/anecdote-of-the-jar
Thanks you! It took me about 20 years to before I felt Wallace Stevens was for me. Anecdote of a Jar is soooo fantastic.
Stevens is tough to swallow at first. He is an acquired taste, for sure. But if stick with it and keep reading his work, it will pay off. I recently revisited The Palm at the End of the Mind: Selected Poems and a play—phew. So good.